I Appeal to You
... through Bertha Dudde  - 22.10.1957 

6952   Accountability towards God .... Doing one’s duty is not enough ....

The possibility exists for every human being to attain perfection during his life on earth. This is why he is accountable to God as to how he uses his time on earth. Thus he cannot sin ‘with impunity’ .... i.e., it will not be without consequences if he does not live a correct way of life, if he lives it in a way that the soul does not derive any benefit from it. And these consequences have to be accepted by him, which he subsequently indeed views as ‘punishment’ but which are merely the result of his wrong way of life .... Thus he has to blame himself for his apparent state of punishment, he caused it of his own free will, for he could just as well have lived correctly, because it was possible for him. But people very rarely think of their future responsibility towards God, Who cannot judge any differently than earthly life demands. They don’t think about it because they don’t believe, because they don’t want to believe, that they have to fulfil a purpose during their earthly life. People’s lack of responsibility keeps steadily growing the more faith dwindles amongst them. The actual earthly purpose of life is not considered and the time after the body’s death is not thought of either, because all faith in it is lacking. That is why the soul will be horrified when it becomes conscious of its existence as well as of its miserable state and when it realises that it caused this state itself .... On the other hand, however, the human being on earth can only ever be admonished to live a responsible way of life, he can only be informed of a God’s judicial authority but he cannot be forced to believe by means of evidence. And people also believe that it is sufficient to do their duty and not to commit any obvious offence .... But thereby they do not reach perfection and a life like that is not the purpose of their earthly existence. The grace of embodiment as a human being must be utilised, because it is a gift for the being which had disfigured itself and which should, and is able to, attain its former perfection again. It is a gift, because the being turned away from God of its own free will, thus it had spurned His divine strength of love. But God offers the being His strength of love once more, and He does this when the soul travels the earthly path as a human being. This incredible gift of grace should be respected by a person, he should not treat it carelessly, he should accept what God’s love offers to him .... Therefore he will have to justify himself before God as to how he used this gift of grace. He must do everything in his power in order to make himself worthy of God’s love, he must gratefully accept what is offered to him in order to attain his past high level again; but he should not live his earthly life irresponsibly, for this grace is only given to him once. And although God will not let go of him, he will nevertheless never be able to catch up with what he had neglected to do during his earthly life because of his own fault .... And his remorse will be immense once he recognises in the beyond the significance of the gift of grace he had left unused on earth ....

Amen